Line #22 Literature/TheDawnhounds


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_dawnhounds.png]]
2	''The Dawnhounds'' is a 2019 {{Biopunk}} NewWeird novel by Sascha Stronach. A doomed ship rolls into the harbour of Hainak Kuay-Vitraj, its crew fallen victim to a [[SyntheticPlague horrifying engineered plague]]. Jyn-Yat Lorn is a beat cop, demoted to the night shift after being caught in a gay bar. She stumbles on the ship’s deadly trail, but she’s not the only one—powerful and secretive forces conspire to take control of a bioweapon with the power to reshape the world. They catch up to Yat and well …
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4	They kill her. [[ResurrectiveImmortality It doesn’t stick]].
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6	An [[EldritchAbomination ancient chthonic power called Monkey]] resurrects her and suffuses her body with magic. On the run from her former colleagues, she has to solve her own murder before the plague gets out and tears her home to pieces.
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8	----
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10	!! The Dawnhounds provides examples of:
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12	* AndIMustScream: Particularly dangerous criminals have their consciousness wiped, and are experimented on and forced into dangerous jobs, [[spoiler: they’re still aware of everything around them, and can feel pain. Also, the ‘particularly dangerous’ part is mostly a government fiction: there aren’t enough criminals to fill demand, so they’ll blank people for incredibly minor offenses.]]
13	* AnimalMotifs: all the weavers have an [[EldritchAbomination associated animal patron]] who grants them magic. Different patrons grant different powers: crane weavers can teleport, ox weavers are incredibly strong, and [[spoiler: tiger weavers hide in plain sight.]]
14	* BigDamnHeroes: the Kopek [[spoiler: teleports into a city canal, wrecking itself in the process]], to save the day.
15	* BioPunk: with a Steampunk twist.
16	* BodyHorror: the plague repurposes human flesh and other organic material to create aggressive fungal/flesh hybrids.
17	--> [...] a dog with a man’s face, crying out in pain. Its mouth remade into a snout like a dog’s, but puckered pink human flesh. It tried to bite him until he walloped it with the cane and send it running off down into the rats-nest of alleyways, shrieking in the voice of a child. Sen moved on.
18	* CastFromHitPoints: weaving requires life energy going in to put magic out. That energy can come from an external source, but in a pinch can come from the weaver themselves. [[KilledOffForReal It has a tendency to go poorly.]]
19	%%* CombatPragmatist: Cannath.
20	* DirtyCop: of two flavours: Wajet is tremendously corrupt but is good-natured [[spoiler: and has secretly been letting LGBT+ people out of the cells and directing them towards better company]], while Varazzo is squeaky clean but [[spoiler: [[VillainWithGoodPublicity is working to unleash the plague]]]].
21	* EldritchAbomination: Monkey is ''not'' a monkey. None of the Gods are what they say on the tin.
22	%%* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Malaysia/Indonesia/Singapore
23	%%* LargeHam: WAJET MAKES AN ENTRANCE
24	%%* NewWeird
25	* ResurrectiveImmortality: when weavers die ([[KilledOffForReal if they’ve got magic left in their body]]) the Gods stitch them back together and throw them back. Jumping back and forth between the void and the land of the living makes them [[BlessedWithSuck significantly more powerful, but chips away at their sanity and makes them less and less human as time goes on.]]
26	* SlasherSmile: Zao would be bad enough, but he has anglerfish teeth implants, apparently for the intimidation factor.
27	* SubvertedTrope: BuryYourGays. Most of the weavers are queer, and they’re [[ResurrectiveImmortality very hard to put down.]]
28	* SyntheticPlague: the MacGuffin, though it takes a more active role in the story later on.
29	* TouchedByVorlons: weavers get their power by making contact with a specific God, and the Gods are … [[EldritchAbomination nontraditional.]]

Context Literature / TheDawnhounds